Ladoja, Summonu differ on conduct of election accreditation

Former governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, on Saturday in Ibadan decried the inability of INEC to conduct a hitch-free accreditation exercise in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ladoja is the Oyo State governorship candidate of Accord Party. He said: “We hope many of the electorate will not be disenfranchised because many could not be accredited due to malfunction of card readers in some polling centres.

“In some areas, the electoral officials did not arrive at the polling centre by 10.00 a.m., particularly in Odinjo area of Ibadan. ‘’ The Accord Party governorship candidate, however, lauded the resilience of Nigerians who besieged the polling centres as early as 7.30 a.m.

“It is an exercise which should not take more than few minutes of each individual’s time, but you see it is taking too long because of INEC’s arrogance. “Many people were also traumatised in the process of getting their PVCs and that is not ideal,” he said. Ladoja therefore called for a review of the electoral process. According to him, many voters in Afijo will not be able to vote today because they couldn’t get their PVCs.

“In fact, in that place, the Accord Party candidate for the House of Assembly and the party chairman couldn’t get their PVCs. “What it implies is that they have been disenfranchised,” he said. NAN reports that the former governor did his accreditation at 11:00 at Ward 10, Polling Unit 13, Ondo Street, Bodija. “Apart from the fact that they didn’t start accreditation exercise at 8am, the accreditation here has been smooth unlike other places,” Ladoja said.

But the Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, Alhaja Monsurat Sunmonu, said the accreditation process was smooth. Sumonu, who was accredited by INEC officials at 10.00 a.m. at her Ajagba Ward 1, Ajagba, Oyo, said the only challenge observed was that the card reader could not read the finger print of people with oily fingers. In Ilorin, the Kwara capital, a PDP chieftain, Mr Dele Belgore, described the use of card reader for elections as a positive development.

Belgore spoke to NAN after the completion of his accreditation exercise at Magaji Ajanaku Polling Unit 11, Oke Ogun ward in Ilorin South Local Government. ” I praise the bold step of introducing advance technology at this stage of our democratic practice in NIgeria. It’s a very big step and development for our great nation,” he said. He also said that the accreditation exercise had been peaceful.